Apology Accepted
by Athenaktt
Summary: COMPLETED! SheppardWeir. Spoiler: Conversion. This is the SheppardWeir ending that should have been added to the end of “Conversion.” At least I think it needed a SheppardWeir ending.


**Author's Notes: **After watching the episode "Conversion" I felt like there was a seen missing. Teyla got an apology, which I believed was needed. But I think Elizabeth also deserved an apology. So thus the spawning of this ficlet.

**Spoilers**: Conversion; Season 2

**Pairing:** Sheppard and Weir

**Apology Accepted**

Elizabeth stretched her arms over her head as she leaned into her well cushioned office chair. She was glad she was able to bring this chair back with her from Earth. The old chair she had was small, uncomfortable, and made her back ache, especially when she sat in her office for hours working late.

With John on a full successful recovery from the Iratus bug retrovirus incident, the past couple of weeks had been relatively smooth. Also with Colonel Steven Caldwell out of her hair, for at least another month, she could relax for a while.

Elizabeth let out a sigh and decided she had done enough work for tonight. She picked up her stylus and clicked on an icon on her Tablet PC. A smile crossed her face as the familiar green screen of a new game of Solitaire filled the monitor.

With her full concentration on playing Solitaire, she didn't even hear the footsteps that entered her office from the control room.

John stood at the door for a moment and waited. He hoped that Elizabeth would sense his presences in her office. She usually seemed to know when he was around her, but tonight it looked as though she was absorbed with something very important as she clicked away on her Tablet PC.

He decided it was probably best to try and get her attention, or he might be standing there all night. He carefully knocked on the glass window he was standing next to, and Elizabeth immediately looked up in the direction of the knock.

"John," she said with some surprise. "Sorry, I didn't hear you come in." Elizabeth straightened herself in her chair and leaned forward onto her desk as she hugged the Tablet PC to her chest.

"Sorry, if you're busy I could…"

Elizabeth quickly waved her hand, "Oh no, you're not interrupting at all. Please sit." She gestured to the empty chair in front of her.

"Okay…" John hesitantly stepped forward towards the chair. "I see you replaced the window," he said and pointed in the direction of the window he single-handedly broke a couple weeks back.

"Yes, we replaced it last week," Elizabeth said.

"I'm really sorry about that," he apologized.

"Don't worry about it, John," she reassured him. "No one got hurt."

"I don't know…I think the glass would have a different opinion," John said.

Elizabeth smiled and folded her hands together on her desk. "So how was your first day of being free from the infirmary? You look pretty relaxed."

"Anyone would look relax if he wasn't turning into a wraith bug," he said.

"That's true," she agreed. "Did you do anything worth mentioning?"

"Nothing in particular, I spent most of the day going around and apologizing to people and showing them my nasty wraith bug virus souvenir," He held out his right arm for Elizabeth to see. "You know, I really hate those bugs," he said making a face.

"Apologizing to people?" she asked.

"Well…when I was lying in the infirmary debugging I was starting to think back and I started to remember things," he explained.

"Oh, so how much do you remember?" Elizabeth asked furrowing her eyebrows.

"I remember things from the beginning of the transformation rather clearly, but as the transformation progressed my memories got a bit muddled," he said.

"John, you know we don't blame you for what happened when the retrovirus was changing you."

"I know, but there were some things that happened that _might_ have been…awkward," he said vaguely.

"Awkward?" Elizabeth asked curiously.

"That doesn't matter anymore," he quickly said. "_That_ has already been resolved."

Elizabeth arched her eyebrow in puzzlement, but decided to let it go.

"All right, you apologized for the window and you are forgiven," she said.

"Actually," John leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "I didn't come here to apologize about the window. I kind of forgot about that," he admitted.

"Oh, so why did you come, John? Did you miss my stupid questions and terrible bedside mannerisms?" she said teasingly.

John chuckled. "You've still got a lot of room for improvement in that department."

"I'm always open to constructive criticism," she smiled.

Elizabeth watched John as his smile faded and he started to look down at his fingers guiltily.

"John?" she asked softly.

"You know I would never intentionally hurt you," he suddenly said and looked into her green eyes.

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she returned his gaze. The scene that day when John pushed her against a wall and choked her, rushed back into her mind. She had pushed the memory into the back of her mind and sort of forgotten that moment by keeping herself busy. But she knew she would never forget that day, and from the expression on John's face, neither would he.

"John, I know that," she choked out. "You don't need to apologize. I—"

"No, I do," he interrupted her. "You trusted me and you were the only one willing to come into my room when I specifically told you I was too dangerous to be around and to leave me alone…" he trailed off.

"John, you know I couldn't get let you go through that alone," Elizabeth said.

"I hurt you! I could have killed you!" he exclaimed.

"You didn't,"' she said.

"I could have."

"But you didn't," she repeated calmly.

"I'm sorry," he finally said.

Elizabeth nodded her head slightly. "Apology accepted. Now don't go beating yourself up because of this." John only looked at Elizabeth again. "John, I've forgiven you, but will _you_ forgive yourself?"

John remained silent and broke eye contact with Elizabeth.

"Do I have to make this an order?" Elizabeth said.

"Maybe," John said quietly and poked at the scab on his arm.

"All right, I'm ordering you to forgive yourself and not to think about this any further. We've got other more important things to worry about. Like…" Elizabeth thought for a moment and remembered the Tablet PC that she was still resting against her chest. "Like Solitaire!" She held up the Tablet for John to see.

"Solitaire?" John furrowed his eyebrows. "I thought you were working. You were so focused on that thing that you didn't even hear me come in."

"I usually don't hear you come in," she said with a shrug.

"But you always seem to know when I'm around," he said eyeing her suspiciously.

"Two words: Aqua Velva," she said with a grin.

John narrowed his eyes at Elizabeth. "Let me see that," he said and took the Tablet from Elizabeth. He used the stylus and pressed a couple buttons on the screen. "Hey, you've got chess in here."

"Yes, I do."

"I'll play you a match," he said.

"Are you also a career military strategist?" She asked.

"I'm just a Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Air Force what do I know about military strategies?" John said shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, the last military strategist I played got his ass handed back to him by a girl," Elizabeth said a hint of pride.

"Really? Well he might just suck at chess."

"And you don't?" she asked.

"I never claimed to be a military strategist," John said

"Fair enough," Elizabeth smiled. "Who goes first?"

"Ladies first," John placed the Tablet PC on the table and moved his chair closer to the desk.

"Thank you, you can be such a gentleman at times," she said picking up the stylus.

"I try my best," he smiled.

Elizabeth smiled and started to contemplate her first move.

John watched as Elizabeth made her move. He was glad the day ended the way it did. Apologizing to everyone else, even Teyla, was rather easy. He wasn't sure why, but when he played back the scenes in his head of him snapping at Elizabeth and yelling at her, he felt extremely guilty. Then when he choked her, he felt what he did was unforgivable and hate himself for it. Elizabeth was only doing what a friend would do. She was always by his side, no matter how much he wanted her away from him.

He watched Elizabeth as she propped her chin on her hand. He smiled to himself. She always had a way with words that made him feel a slightly better about things that ate him from the inside.

"John?"

John snapped out of his thoughts and saw that Elizabeth was patiently waiting for him to start his turn.

He looked down at the Tablet screen. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Yes, I'm sure, John," Elizabeth said confidently.

"Okay," he said. "It's your funeral." He smirked as Elizabeth just looked at him and shook her head. This was going to be a long game…

**Finis**


End file.
